{"id":23240,"date":"2013-10-25T10:00:29","date_gmt":"2013-10-25T17:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/?p=23240"},"modified":"2013-10-24T16:43:48","modified_gmt":"2013-10-24T23:43:48","slug":"release-vancouver-communities-unite-fix-planning-mess-residents-associations-seek-meaningful-involvement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2013\/10\/25\/release-vancouver-communities-unite-fix-planning-mess-residents-associations-seek-meaningful-involvement\/","title":{"rendered":"RELEASE: Vancouver Communities Unite to Fix Planning Mess Residents\u2019 Associations Seek Meaningful Involvement"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Eighteen community residents\u2019 associations, covering almost the entire City of Vancouver, have now joined together in a Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods with the specific purpose of demanding a more respectful relationship between the City and the communities. \u201cThe Coalition is working on creating a new development\/planning paradigm that will stress community involvement and local influence over land use and zoning decisions,\u201d said spokesperson Jak King.<\/p>\n

This coming together follows the summer of our discontent. Virtually every neighbourhood in Vancouver has suffered through the disaster that is development and \u201ccommunity engagement\u201d under the present planning process.<\/p>\n

Whether it is the failed Community Plans in Marpole, Grandview-Woodland, the West End and Downtown Eastside, or specific developments around False Creek, the Pearson lands in South Vancouver, the Rize and other projects in Mount Pleasant, the \u201cdowntownification\u201d of Oakridge, and the overriding of community opinion in Norquay, the outrage expressed by the affected communities has been the same.<\/p>\n

In each and every case, residents have been refused genuine involvement and influence over decision-making. Even in the few cases where residents have been allowed a form of consultation, such as in the Mount Pleasant Implementation, their positions have been ignored or curtailed or both.\u00a0 \u201cWe have witnessed public hearings where hundreds of people have vocally and loudly opposed developments only to see City Council vote in support of the developers,\u201d noted Fern Jeffries. \u201cThis has squandered the time and energy residents have put into engaging with these proposals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope that the City will quickly recognize that something is badly broken in the way they engage with communities and return to the concept of community-based planning that was so successful in building Vancouver,\u201d said King. The Coalition will work together to support individual neighbourhoods in their disputes over unacceptable planning decisions and proposals.<\/p>\n

The disenfranchisement of neighbourhoods must end. The Coalition will not accept with equanimity any more faux \u201cengagement\u201d circuses in which \u201cconsultation\u201d produces nothing but disappointment and damaged communities.\u00a0 Communities demand genuine involvement and the right of local residents to have the highest level of influence over the future of their own communities.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/b><\/b>The Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods<\/strong> comprises eighteen community residents\u2019 associations who share a common interest in collaborating with the City of Vancouver.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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